- Jackson Doesn't Mention Daughter's Role in Contract
School board member Shelia Jackson voted against a plan that would continue awarding business to a company that employs her daughter, quietly avoiding a controversy that dogged her earlier this year.
Jackson did not bring up the fact that her daughter Kendra Jackson works for URS Corporation Americas, one of three companies hired by San Diego Unified to help carry out its $2.1 billion school construction and renovation bond. Instead, the schools trustee said she was concerned that San Diego Unified would be replacing one of the other companies it had used before, causing turmoil in the program.
That company, Arcadis, came to the meeting to complain about the selection process, arguing that it should be included. Despite its complaints, the school board moved ahead with the plan to hire three other companies to help run the bond, including URS. It passed 4 to 1 with Jackson voting against it.
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- Shuttered Charter Appeals Its Case
A charter school that was shuttered by San Diego Unified this summer after a bitter battle is taking its case to the County Board of Education this Wednesday, hoping to overturn the decision.
San Diego Unified decided to close Promise, a charter school that ran from kindergarten to eighth grade in Chollas View, after a school district investigation spurred by parent and teacher complaints concluded that Promise suffered a long list of other violations, including keeping faulty financial statements and violating state laws that require it to hold open meetings.
Promise attorneys argue that the school fixed all the problems and that the school district didn't give it a chance to look over the evidence against them before it decided to shut the school down. Backers pointed to its test scores, which ranked high among schools with similar challenges.
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- The Dissolving District: Powerful Parents Already Paying More
San Diego Unified school board member Scott Barnett, I think, deserves a round of applause. Not necessarily because he proposed two tax increases but because he's the first schools official I've seen to even try to conceive of a remotely realistic plan that would bring the district's cash flow in line with its spending.
Someone like District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis can slam him all she wants. It's very easy to say "Hell no!" to new taxes. The union can slam him all it wants, as well. It's very easy to say teachers don't want a pay cut.
What Barnett appears committed to is dealing with reality and confronting residents with the stark crisis at hand.
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- Fact Check TV: Schools Backlash Spurred Bodyguard
This edition of Fact Check TV in partnership with NBC7 San Diego examines two claims by San Diego Unified school board member Scott Barnett and San Diego State University professor Esther Rothblum.
Barnett accurately described one impact of the Oakland Unified School District's transition to state control. Faced with ugly choices and harsh community backlash, the state's appointed trustee, Randy Ward, got a bodyguard. Ward is now superintendent of the San Diego County Office of Education, which oversees San Diego Unified's finances.
Rothblum correctly cited a national comparison of colleges offering a major for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies. San Diego State University is the second in the country to offer the degree.
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